End of the year dance recital!

At the end of April, Brynley had her final dance recital for the year. She has been so cute at home practicing while singing her song! She did a great job but never smiled the whole time! We will have to work on that for next year - I think she was just really concentrating!
Hayden was very patiently watching every dance!

Bryn's teacher (Miss Misty) also works on tumbling and had the girls do a little bit of tumbling. Unfortunately, Bryn's cartwheel is not so good - Though I'd say she has at least 15 - 20 pounds up on all the other girls in the class so I'm not surprised that her little arms can't hold her up!


After the recital - what a cutie! (I think I'm starting to see some resemblance between the two of us!)

7 Years ago today...

...our sweet baby Hayden joined our little family! He made quite the entrance and for those who don't know the story - I am going to give a quick recap of the day leading up to his birth:

It was Tuesday May 20th - the last day of school and my last day of teaching before having my baby. Hayden's due date was 3 weeks away and I was looking forward to a few weeks of relaxing on the couch before the big day! The kids were dismissed around noon that day at which point I went to work trying to finish packing up my classroom. I was really quite huge at this point but still getting around pretty well. Andy was planning to meet me at the school when he was done with classes around 5pm so we could finish packing up together. Once he got to the school I felt so sick to my stomach - I figured it was because I hadn't eaten all day and all I wanted was a steak! So instead of working, we left to go out to dinner, even leaving my car in the parking lot and heading to Black Angus.

When we got to the restaurant it was so crowded, why on a Tuesday night before 6 was it so stinkin crowded??? So I sat down to wait for our table, after a few minutes I really thought I would pass out because I was so hungry. Andy was feeling really bad and got me a loaf of bread from a hostess who took a little pity on me! The bread was wonderful, it helped me feel a bit better pretty quickly. After waiting in the lobby for about 20 minutes our name was finally called and I would finally get my steak and potatoes! We got about half way to our table when I heard a small pop, like a balloon popping and suddenly water was gushing down my legs. I sort of freaked out and told Andy I think my water broke! Meanwhile people are staring at us - I had a knee length skirt on so you could just see the water puddling on the floor as I tried to keep my legs together while waddling to chair I saw 5 feet away. I grabbed the chair and sat down. Turns out I grabbed the chair from a table where a very young couple were on a date - they looked at me pretty wide eyed!

The hostess didn't know what to do, neither did I or Andy - this had never happened to us before! Andy asked if they had any towels in the back and so she ran and got some. I started wiping down my legs and kind put a few between my legs as I stood up, another huge gush, and I sat right back down. How on earth would I ever be able to walk out of this restaurant??? Eventually Andy convinced me that I just had to suck it up and do it! And so a few minutes later we headed back out the way we came in - people were clapping and telling us congratulations, it was so unreal. As I walked out of the restaurant people were coming in saying, "Is it time???" We got to Andy's car and put a few of the towels (that the restaurant let us take) on the seat of the car before I sat down, then we headed home to get the hospital bag!

Andy called triage and they told us to come in right away even though I was having no contractions, but the water kept pouring out. I was measuring over 6-7 weeks ahead during the pregnancy and now we know why - I had huge amounts of extra amniotic fluid - it was amazing. The rest of the story is basically that I spent 17 hours in labor, in the hospital on pitocin before Hayden finally entered the world on Wednesday, May 21st! I was glad to have that surprise 3 weeks early - I totally didn't expect it! He weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces. Here are a few pictures from the days after Hayden was born:


We are so thrilled with the young man that Hayden is becoming - he continues to amaze us each and every day! He is already talking about turning 8 next year and getting baptized - time sure flies!
Hayden was so proud last month to get his picture taken at BYU - he is totally set on going there - we cross our fingers that he will someday!

A break from bedrest... for a little concert!

I was so excited back in February when Andy surprised me with tickets to see one of my favorite people in concert - Chris Daughtry! I have been in love with him since he first appeared on American Idol 5 years ago. He is such a great singer and he is quite the eye candy as well. I was equally as excited to hear that Lifehouse would be opening for Daughtry - the lead singer of Lifehouse is also quite a looker and the drummer is from here in Gilbert! Thank you to my doctor for giving me special permission to attend the concert even though I was on bed rest - he said I could go as long as I did not do any crowd surfing or mosh pitting....

Before the concert - eating dinner right by the arena

Lifehouse - they were fantastic!

Here I am with Chris Daughtry in the background!

Some pictures of Daughtry

I've posted a few video clips bellow in case you have no idea who these bands are - you will probably recognize the songs at least!




Thanks Andy for a great night!

3D Baby Pictures!

A bonus to having complications to this pregnancy are the awesome ultrasounds and pictures that come with it! Today I had my first of weekly level 2 ultrasounds - technology is amazing! The perinatoligist said the baby could not look better. She is measuring a few weeks ahead and is already 3 1/2 pounds... Which they say with this type of ultrasound is quite accurate at this point. My doctor has been really concerned about my amniotic fluid levels but today it measured just a bit above the high end of normal so that is another very good sign! Still no answers as to why I am bleeding but as long as I have been on bed rest, the bleeding has pretty much stopped.

The baby's legs and feet

A profile shot of the baby with one arm by her face, you can see the other hand in the left corner

Another picture almost the same as above but she is almost smiling!

This picture might be a little much for some but I finally feel confident calling this baby a girl. If you can't tell, her bum is at the bottom of the picture, hand is between her leg with one finger sort of pointing to her girly parts!

The ultrasound tech apologized that she couldn't get better pictures, this baby would not stop moving, it was hilarious! What should have been a 45 minute ultrasound turned into almost an hour and a half in order to get all of the measurements needed.